Research Directory
School of International Development - UEA: Social protection and mobile livelihoods
Social protection has been going up the policy agenda in poor countries over the past 5-10 years, and renewed interest in the social and economic implications of migration has occurred over the same period. The interface between these two apparently separate topics is an interesting one, as yet relatively unexplored, but one which promises to yield important new strategic insights concerning the role of mobility in processes of progressive social and economic change, and the appropriate contribution of social transfers and related services in supporting or inhibiting mobile and changing livelihoods.
The antecedents of contemporary policy debates about social protection lie in the safety net approach to preventing temporary or seasonal failures to secure enough food of the 1980s. The idea of safety nets was that families vulnerable to hunger should have a minimum fallback position to which they could have recourse, in the event of incidental livelihood failures whether caused by natural cycles and risks (seasonality) or due to an enforced switch in economic structure (adjustment). The policy response mainly comprised food-for-work or cash-for-work schemes, and was consciously envisaged as not interfering in longer term social or economic change. However, this approach is challenged by chronic extreme poverty, and recurrent food insecurity crises, resulting in repeated emergency responses on a large scale. Contemporary social protection seeks to address this more continuous deprivation problem by identifying a predictable caseload and providing ‘predictable funding for predictable needs’. In addition, legislated transfer entitlements such as provision of non-contributory pensions or child support grants are now being encouraged, even in very poor countries. The emphasis is shifting more to rights, to the obligations of the state towards its citizens, and to the role social protection can play in promoting improved livelihoods, wellbeing and gender equality.
Migration is an essential component of social change that eventually (hopefully) results in more secure livelihoods and improvements in future wellbeing. Yet migration (except perhaps temporary migration for seasonal work) is often inhibited or actively discouraged by policy. This occurs at national level with respect to rural-urban migration, and at international level with respect to migration between countries. Migration can be interpreted as contributing to social protection when migrants make contributions to the livelihood security of their families who stay behind. On the other hand, migrants themselves may lose social or public support to which they would have had access in their home communities, while not being entitled to such support in their places of destination. These are merely outline sketches of two out of an array of intersections that occur between social transfers and human mobility, some of them purposive (built deliberately into policy) and some of them inadvertent (unforeseen side effects of policy focused on dealing with another problem). Many of these intersections are not obvious, for example in South Africa it has been found that pension income increases the mobility of younger household members. In our own research so far, we have examined the exclusion from social support of individuals in mobile occupations such as migrant fishermen, and the contextual and contingent nature of migrant access to health and education services. This also raises issues of boundaries between social protection and broader social policy which require critical consideration in future research.
Contact Details
devresnews@uea.ac.uk
Tel: + 44 1603 592323
Research
Research projects
Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme: Second Phase Research Component – Frontiers of Social Protection, DFID
Frank Ellis is currently livelihoods advisor to the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), a DFID-funded programme covering six southern African countries that aims to shift the policy response to growing vulnerability in the region from emergency responses to social protection, under the rubric of ‘predictable funding for predictable needs’. The programme has been examining in particular the strengths and weaknesses of cash transfers as a mechanism for underpinning the livelihoods of the most vulnerable groups in southern African societies.
Further information and case study material is available on the website of the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme.
Social protection by and for temporary work migrants and their households in northwest Bangladesh, Development Research Centre on Globalisation, Migration and Poverty at the University of Sussex
Janet Seeley, Md. Azmal Kabir, Nazmun Nahar Lipi and Sadia Afrin
This research project focused on Bengali speaking temporary work migrants and their families from rural areas in Murshidabad in West Bengal and Gaibandha in North Western Bangladesh. The research, involving fieldwork with sending communities of migrants, explored how families left behind respond to the absence of the temporary worker and how migrants in their temporary workplaces and as they travel, cope with the risks and hazards they face. The research examined the forms of social protection provided by the state, non-governmental organisations, kin and community that are available, which may provide support to migrants and those left behind in the sending community. In addition, attention is paid to the ways in which state and civil society structures and policies may increase the vulnerability of migrants and their families.
More information about this project can be found here. The final report can be accessed here.
Migration, Education and Social Protection, Development Research Centre on Globalisation, Migration and Poverty at the University of Sussex
This project builds on earlier research in Bangladesh and India by Janet Seeley and Nitya Rao and seeks to develop a deeper understanding of two key issues: a) the differences between India and Bangladesh in terms of household level decision-making, in particular, of gendered educational choices, and their linkage to subsequent migration patterns; and b) why state social security provision might lower the probability of migration.
Research reports are available here.
Livelihood Trajectories and HIV and AIDS in South West Uganda – a longitudinal study of rural households, ESRC
Janet Seeley was the Principal Investigator on this two-year project (2006-2008) funded by the ESRC and MRC (£300,000). The main objective of this project was to assess the impact of HIV-infection on households over a 16-year period (1991-2007) in a rural setting in Uganda (Masaka District).
Publications and the final report on this research can be accessed via the ESRC website.
The longitudinal impact of HIV and AIDS on rural livelihoods in East Africa, SIDA/FAO
Janet Seeley is the Principal Investigator on this project for two cohorts in Uganda. The overall purpose of this study is to analyze the trajectories of households and communities affected by HIV and AIDS and the impact of HIV and AIDS in Uganda on agriculture and rural livelihoods for the past 20 years in order to understand the long-term impact of the epidemic and to contribute to the design of policies and programmes for impact mitigation.
Linking Migration, Reproduction and Wellbeing: Exploring the Reproductive Strategies of Low-income Rural Migrants in Vietnam, ESRC/DFID
Catherine Locke is currently working with partners in Vietnam on a research project that explores the reproductive strategies of poor migrants and how these affect their experience of migration. The research looks at the mental, emotional and social implications of reproductive behaviour among migrants. Areas of study include how reproductive aspirations fit into migratory strategies, how poor migrants manage reproduction and how institutional factors enable or constrain that management.
Further information is available here.
Examining the vulnerability of coffee growing migrants in Vietnam, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship
Alexandra Winkels conducts a trajectory study examining the vulnerability of coffee growing migrants in Vietnam over a five year period. This study provides an important contribution to understanding the risks migrants and their families are exposed to and the various coping mechanisms they employ in response to global and local changes. It also examines the role of migration activities in creating these risks and vulnerabilities.
Migrant fishers and fishing in the Western Indian Ocean: Socio-economic dynamics and implications for management, Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) Commissioned Study
Tim Daw is involved in a regional research project on the socio-economic and governance issues associated with migrant fishers and fishing in the Western Indian Ocean. The study includes a literature review of the region and field-based case studies in 3 countries. The main aim of the work being proposed is to contribute towards "improved knowledge and understanding of both the needs of migrant fishers and their impact on marine resources, so that they can be incorporated as active stakeholders in fishery management planning."
The objectives of this work are:
- To identify the factors that drive fishers to migrate from their home grounds,
- To establish the migratory patterns followed by different fisher groups and the factors influencing the choice of fishing areas by migrant fishers,
- To assess the impact of the migrant fishers on resident communities, and
- To determine the social and economic issues facing migrant fishers
This is a joint project of the University of East Anglia, CORDIO East Africa, KMFRI, University of Dar es Salaam, University of Eduardo Mondlane, Community Centred Conservation, Recomap, Kalmar University, University of Stockholm.
Staff
Group members
Frank Ellis is Professor of Agricultural Economics (DEV). His interest is in rural development, particularly in the livelihoods approach to poverty reduction. His current research focuses, among other things, on policy options for reversing growing vulnerability through social protection - with a geographical focus in southern Africa.
Nitya Rao is Senior Lecturer in Gender Analysis and Development (DEV). Her research interests include gendered changes in land and agrarian relations, migration, livelihood and well-being. She has mainly worked in South Asia, but also has interests in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa.
Janet Seeley is Senior Lecturer in Gender and Development (DEV). Her main research experience and interests are in the social aspects of HIV and AIDS, migration, the understanding of chronic poverty and social protection. She has worked in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia.
Research collaborators
Tim Daw, Lecturer in Natural Resources (DEV)
Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, Professor of Social Policy and International Development (DEV)
Catherine Locke, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies (DEV)
Alexandra Winkels, Senior Research Fellow (DEV/ODG)
Current and recent postgraduate researchers
Lan Anh Loang: Gender relations, intra-household power hierarchies and social norms in migration decision-making in rural Vietnam
Caroline Barratt: Risk and fisherfolk in Uganda
Priti Biswas: Poverty and old age - a case study of Bangladesh
Maria Farah Quijano: Rural intrahousehold gender relations in transformation
Frances Hay: Ethnographic exploration of mobility in north India
Minh Nguyen: Servants of the Socialist Economy
Emmanuel Nyamkeye: Gender relations and water vending in Ghana